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Losing Her Wings

post from American Street on 29 August 2008 11:19:00 PM. © American Street

One of the sad things about the bitter identity-politics battle in the Democratic Primaries for President this year was the way some people began to consider sexist rhetoric okay if it helped defeat the awful witch Hillary. The media pundit sexism was surprisingly open but not really unpredictable. The number of lefty bloggers, even women [...]

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/08/29/losing-her-wings/

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John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin looks sudden
and panicked -- an example of his leadership decisions

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 29 August 2008 11:16:30 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

John McCain made a bold choice, a choice I wasn't sure he could make. But it's also a cynical choice. McCain wasn't searching for a vice president; he was searching for a symbol: working class family (to deflect attention away from his and Cindy's background) and gender (to recruit Hillary Clinton supporters).

Barack Obama made a choice on who could best govern. John McCain made a choice based on who would best win.

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Echoes of Harriet

post from Talking Points Memo on 29 August 2008 11:14:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

David Frum: "It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be[...]

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Forbes.com claimed Palin "oppos[es]" earmarks --
but her administration said it requested them this year

post from Media Matters for America on 29 August 2008 11:11:36 PM. © Media Matters for America

In an August 29 article,Forbes.com Washingtonbureau chief BrianWingfield asserted that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "shares [Sen. John]McCain's opposition to earmarks." However, in a March 18 Juneau Empire op-ed, John Katz-- Alaska'sdirector of state-federal relations and special counsel to Palin -- wrote that in 2008, the Palinadministration "request[ed] 31 earmarks, down from 54 last year."From Katz's op-ed, which was highlighted by BradfordPlumer in an August 29 blog post on The New Republic's[...]

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http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/378589831/200808290024

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Why Women Should Vote

post from Military Spouse Press - Recent Diaries on 29 August 2008 11:07:34 PM. © Military Spouse Press - Recent Diaries

I received this via an email from a friend--sounded like something we should read....

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic'.

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/co...

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels'. It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party, remember to vote.

History is being made.

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http://www.milspousepress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=800

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Late Night Music Club with The Staple Singers

post from Crooks and Liars on 29 August 2008 11:00:26 PM. © Crooks and Liars

So I’m drinking beer, listening to some dinky local band and shooting pool in a no-name suburban cinder-block bar at an age when I shouldn’ta been, when I started chatting with this old guy. Talking religion and women, which usually should be avoided in bars late at night, but we had a fine time backing [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/29/late-night-music-club-with-the-staple-si
ngers/

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With Gustav closing in, FEMA still broken

post from Firedoglake on 29 August 2008 11:00:08 PM. © Firedoglake

In the three years since the drowning of New Orleans, FEMA still hasn't gotten fixed. Senator McCain's great and good friend Senator Lieberman (Lieberman-CT) was supposed to do something about that, wasn't he?[...]

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http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/29/with-gustav-closing-in-fema-still-broken/

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Sarah Palin is your new Segway

post from Daily Kos on 29 August 2008 10:57:46 PM. © Daily Kos

Sarah Palin is your new Segway.

Sarah Palin is your New New Coke.

Sarah Palin is your new FoxTrax.

Sarah Palin is your new Edsel.

Sarah Palin is your new Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football.

Sarah Palin is your new Nü Metal.

Sarah Palin is your new Betamax.

Sarah Palin is your new Dunder Mifflin Infinity.

Sarah Palin is your new Windows Vista.

Sarah Palin is your new OK Cola.

Sarah Palin is your new Stone Temple Pilots reunion tour.

Sarah Palin is your new Emily's Reasons Why Not.

Sarah Palin is your new Ryan Leaf.

Sarah Palin is your new Star Wars Episodes I-III, plus the Clone Wars.

Sarah Palin is your new Ford Pinto.

Sarah Palin is your new Cuil.

Sarah Palin is your new Dick Sargent.

Sarah Palin is your new XFL.

Sarah Palin is your new Apple Newton.

Sarah Palin is your new Brett Favre's retirement.

Sarah Palin is your new Laserdisc.

Sarah Palin is your new Olestra.

Sarah Palin is your new fill in the blank game in comments.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/378575646/1838

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Timing Is Everything

Seems that earlier this week, Stephen Branchflower, the investigator heading up the state probe into Gov. Sarah Palin sent an email to others involved in the investigation, telling them that it was time to schedule a deposition of the governor. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/9sLkTKo9FVI/211536.php

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"Country First"

The first time I saw McCain's campaign use the slogan "Country First," I assumed it was simply another cliche Republican attempt to claim the mantle of patriotism and passively indict Democrats as America-haters. And while I'm sure the patriotism[...]

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